Space Crusader - Rookie Awards 2024

My Process

This project came from a competition at CG Spectrum called Raiding The Rookies, where 2D concept art students were paired with 3D modeling students. This character is based on a design by my teammate, who developed this character based on our initial conversation over Zoom. We continued to communicate and collaborate throughout the entire 13-week duration of the challenge.

Like any project, there was a lot of back and forth between programs and the various stages of the process to update and fix things as needed. That said, my workflow for this model was pretty conventional.

I started with a temporary male base mesh to help block in the major armour pieces. Once I had the basic proportions and pieces in place, I started refining or replacing the temporary geometry with cleaner meshes. I utilised typical box modeling techniques, as well as nurbs curve modeling for the leg armour pieces.

For the cloth, I used Houdini (planar patches and vellum), before bringing it back into Maya for retopology. For the draping fabric I used nCloth in Maya.

Next, I took the model into Substance Painter for texturing, and then back to Maya for rigging, posing, lighting and rendering. 

Wireframe

Rigging and Posing

To pose the character I created a basic rig. I placed the bones, set up IK for the knees, added the controllers and did the weight painting all with the default Maya tools. I also added blend shapes for the fingers and toes. 

Modeling Progress Pictures

Texturing & Rendering Progress Pictures

UV Layout

For this project I utilised a UDIM workflow. This project uses a total of thirteen 8k tiles. Due to some late changes and additions to the model geometry itself, some of the UVs were unwrapped and packed pretty late in the process and didn't get as much care and attention in the layout as others. 

Final Thoughts

Getting involved in The Rookies has been an excellent experience. I have learnt a lot, and working with my teammate as part of the internal CG Spectrum competition ensured that I had something complete by the deadline.

I am really proud of the final result and I am looking forward to taking the lessons I've learnt from this character into my future projects.

See Gabriel Chase's concept art here: https://www.therookies.co/entries/28876